APUSH: America Moves to the City (1865-1900) Vocab

sweatshop

A factory where employees are forced to work long hours under difficult conditions for meager wages. "The women of Hull House successfully lobbied in 1893 for an Illinois anti-sweatshop law that protected women workers..."

tenement

A multi-dwelling building, often poor or overcrowded. "The cities... harbored... towering skyscrapers and stinking tenements."

convert

A person who turns from one religion or set of beliefs to another. "A fertile field for converts was found in America's harried, nerve-racked, and urbanized civilization..."

pauper

A poor person, often one who lives on tax-supported charity. "The first restrictive law... banged the gate in the face of paupers..."

tycoon

A wealthy businessperson, especially one who openly displays power and position. "Two new journalistic tycoons emerged."

affluence

An abundance of wealth. "These leafy 'bedroom communities' eventually ringed the bring-and-concrete cities with greenbelt of affluence."

megalopolis

An extensive, heavily populated area, containing several dense urban centers. "The... city gave way to the immense and impersonal megalopolis..."

parochial

Concerning a parish or small district. "Catholics expanded their parochial-school system...."

rustic

Concerning unsophisticated country ways; crude and inelegant. "Art had been of sickly growth in the rustic years of the Republic..."

prohibition

Forbidding by law the manufacture, sake, or consumption of liquor. "Statewide prohibition.... was sweeping new states into the 'dry' column."

despotism

Government by an absolute or tyrannical ruler. "... people had grown accustomed to cringing before despotism."

syndicated

In journalism, material that is sold by an organization for publication in several newspapers. "Bare-knuckle editorials were... being supplanted by feature articles and non-controversial syndicated material."

agnostic

One who believes that there can be no human knowledge of any God or gods. "The... skeptic... lectured widely on 'Some Mistakes of Moses' and 'Why I Am an Agnostic."

behavioral psychology

The branch of psychology that examines human action, often considering it more important tan mental or inward states. "His [work] helped to establish the modern discipline of behavioral psychology."

Fundamentalist

A Protestant who rejects religious modernism and adheres to a strict and literal interpretation of Christian doctrine and Scriptures. "Conservatives, or 'Fundamentalists,' stood firmly on the Scripture... "